The invention relates to a keyboard for desktop and portable computers, of a type including multiple character keys such as letters, digits, punctuations and accents, displacement keys, command of peripherals, and comprising notably a set of alphanumeric keys of typewriters, assorted keys for the execution of writing operations, and a set of numeric keys of calculators together with calculation keys, the whole of alphabetic keys being grouped in a compact central zone.
On known keyboards of this type, the set of keys characteristic of a typewriter and the set of keys characteristic of a calculator are arranged in separate parts of the keyboard. This keyboard therefore includes the main alphanumeric typewriter keyboard, a numeric keypad distanced from it, and a zone of arrowed keys providing the direction functions located between the main alphanumeric keyboard and the numeric keypad. To make the use of the keyboard as easy as possible, particularly in writing and calculating modes, despite the distance between the two parts, it was deemed necessary to keep for both the main alphanumeric keyboard and the numeric keypad all the assorted keys necessary for the execution of operations, thus creating doubles. Another consequence is that the keyboard includes two sets of numeric keys, one on the main alphanumeric keyboard and one on the specific numeric keypad.
This known configuration of the keyboard can be explained by the fact that during the evolution of typewriters towards more and more complex computing systems, able to perform more numerous and more sophisticated functions, the usual appearance of the keyboard was kept, while adding at each new step supplementary keys, for example under the form of separate blocks.
Existing keyboards then have the inconvenience of being very, bulky. This problem is particularly aggravating in the case of portable computers, which have limited space for the keyboard. The only known solution so far has been to suppress the numeric keypad.
The objective of the present invention is to offer a keyboard for desktop and portable computers that overcomes the, inconvenience here above enumerated.
In order to reach this goal, the keyboard according to the invention is characterized in that all its keys are laid out as one single block of rows of juxtaposed keys, all the numeric keys being grouped in one compact zone integrated to the block, and the execution keys, such as displacement keys, being grouped by function families, in compact zones integrated to the said block.